
pcabonp Cbucation funD. 



TRIBUTE 



TO 



GOVERNOR AIKEN. 



TRIBUTE 



TO 



W I L L I A M AIKEN, 



EX-GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 



AT THE 



ANNUAL MEETING OF THE TRUSTEES 



OK THE 



PEABODY EDUCATION FUND, 



New York, 5 October, 1887. 






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CAM BRIDG E: 
JOHN W [LSON AND SON, 

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[887. 



. h u V. 



TRIBUTE. 



At the Annual Meeting of the Peabody Trustees 
of Southern Education, at New York, on the 5th 
of October, 1887, the Chairman, Hon. Robert C. 
Winthrop, at the conclusion of his Introductory 
Address, announced the death of Governor Aiken 
as follows : — 

I have reserved, Gentlemen, for the closing words of this 
Address the formal announcement of what has been upper- 
most, I am sure, in all our minds and in all our hearts, as 
it certainly has been in my own, in coming to our Annual 
Meeting this morning. I need not say that I refer to the 
death of our highly valued and endeared associate and 
friend, Governor Aiken of South Carolina. 

As one of the very (cw surviving members of this Board 
originally named by Mr. Peabody himself twenty years 
ago; as one of the Executive Committee for nearly that 
whole period, and for several years its Chairman ; as our 
•ml Vice-President since the death of good Bishop 
Mcllvaine; and as the leading representative always of 
the States for the benefit of whose children our Trust was 



established, — Governor Aiken has been connected with our 
Board and its work, and with most of us individually, by 
ties which cannot be severed without our deep sorrow. 
He has been a faithful and devoted member of our Board 
from first to last, rarely missing a meeting, and always 
co-operating cordially with us in all our proceedings. I 
hold in my hand the last letter which I received from him, 
which I cannot forbear from reading to you. I had writ- 
ten to tell him of the death of Dr. Stearns, of the per- 
plexity in which we were placed, and of the seeming 
necessity of an extra meeting of the Trustees in Jul)-. 
His reply was as follows: — 

Charleston, S. C, June 15, 1SS7. 

Dear Mr. Winthrop, — Your note received. I greatly 
regret it will not be in my power to attend your proposed 
meeting of the Trustees on the 7th of July. 

My health has been severely shattered during the last seven 
or eight months,- — so much so that I have not the strength to 
undertake so long a journey. 

Jt appears to me that Dr. Green and yourself could manage 
the matter without the Board being called together. Anything 
you may do will certainly be sanctioned at the meeting in 

October. 

Yours sincerely and truly, 

William Aiken. 

Our lamented friend had held many offices of impor- 
tance and distinction in his own State and in the Nation. 
For several years a representative, and afterwards a sen- 
ator, in the legislature of South Carolina, he was the 
Governor of that State in 1844, and was a Representative 
in Congress from 185 1 to 1857. In the organization of 
the House of Representatives of the United States in 
1855-56, after a memorable contest, he came within a vote 
or two of being elected Speaker of that body, and could 






not fail to have been disappointed; but he gave his hand 
instantly and cheerfully to the successful candidate, and 
conducted him to the chair. He was one of the mosl 
amiable of men; distinguished, anion- Southern and 
Northern statesmen alike, for moderation, good temper, 
and good sense. 

The results of the Civil War. in which he had taken no 
active part, fell heavily upon him, depriving him of a large 
part of a great fortune, and leaving him with but a small 
fraction for the support of those dearest to him. Rut he- 
bore his pecuniary reverses, and not a few most trying 
personal injustices, with cheerful resignation, and was ready 
to unite at once in any measures for the pacification, con- 
ciliation, and welfare of the Southern people, and for the 
restoration of peace, harmony, and union to our country. 
To this Peabody Trust he looked with affectionate con- 
fidence, as one of the earliest and most effective means of 
healing the wounds which the war had inflicted upon the 
social relations of the North and South, as well as of pro- 
viding education for the Southern children ; and he often 
said that he regarded the position of one of Mr. Peabody's 
Trustees as a higher honor than any office which he had 
ever held or sought. 

Governor Aiken was born in Charleston, South Carolina, 
in 1S06, and died on the 6th of September last. lie had 
thus reached the ample age of eighty-one years. He 
married a niece of the eminent and excellent William 
Lowndes, whose fame was second to that of no one of 
his contemporaries in the Congress of the United States 
more than half a century ago. We shall all desire to offer 
our heartfelt sympathies to his venerable widow and to his 
family, and to enter upon our records an affectionate trib- 
ute to his own services and character. 

In thinking how this might best be done, I could not 
fail to recall the warm friendship which had long existed 



between our lamented associate and our honored Vice- 
President, Governor Fish, and I wrote to the Governor to 
beg him to prepare a Minute for our Records. On my 
arrival here yesterday, I received a note from him, which I 
will read, together with his admirable tribute to Governor 
Aiken, and leave them for the disposition of the Board. 

Resolved, That the following entry be made in the 
Minutes of this Board : — 

The Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund have 
listened with profound regret to the sad notice in their 
President's Address of the death of their much-beloved 
associate, the late William Aiken. 

Named by Mr. Peabody as one of the Trustees on the 
original foundation of the Trust, Governor Aiken's interest 
in its objects has from the beginning been zealous and 
efficient. The history of the Trust records his untiring 
devotion to its aims; no one was in advance of him in the 
advocacy of its high purposes, and no one was ready to 
give more of personal attention, or to sacrifice more of 
personal convenience, in their advancement. 

Tender and warm in his affections, kind and genial in his 
intercourse, scrupulous in truthfulness and integrity, free 
from vanity or pretension, generous in his judgments as 
in his life, he was beloved because the kind gentleness of 
his intercourse was an inseparable part of his nature, and 
because the happiness of others was with him an object 
of life, and formed a large part of his own happiness. The 
pleasure of others was his enjoyment. 

Governor Aiken's was a moral and highly religious char- 
acter: exemplar}' and beautiful in the varied walks of life, 
a devoted husband, a kind and affectionate father, a loyal 
and generous friend. Called to man}- high positions in 
public life, he fulfilled all their trusts with dignity, integrity, 



and ability; and when the disasters of a civil war sur 
rounded him, its attendants — adversity, misfortune, and 
loss of property — diminished neither his calm cheerful- 
ness, his hospitality, nor his warmth of heart. 

His associates in this Board, who well know his virtues 
and his high qualities, deeply deplore his loss, and record 
this feeble but sincere tribute to the worth of a dear friend. 

Whereupon, on motion of Chief-Justice Waite, 
seconded by Hon. Henry R. Jackson, it was 
unanimously 

Voted) That the foregoing Minute be entered on our 
Records, and that a copy be communicated to the widow 
and family of Governor Aiken, with an assurance of the 
heartfelt sympathy of the Trustees. 



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